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Wednesday, June 30, 2010

When I visited Yuyuan 豫园 or the local call it Cheng Huang Miao ( City God Temple)城隍庙 at Shanghai, I got a chance to try out one of the local famous snack - 灌汤包 Guan Tang Bao . That was my first time sipping the soup from the bao using a straw. It has got to be sip slowly as the soup is super hot! The crab egg base soup was simply delicious, sold at RMB 13.

I bought my Guan Tang Bao at this stall - Shanghai Snacks

The bao is freshly made and steamed, waiting time was about 10mins, but worthy !!! This stall also sell many different kind of local snacks.Eagerly waiting for my bao...steaming in action...

Visit to Shanghai will not be completed without coming to Yuyuan. This place has got more than 700 years history, which was the heart of business, politics and culture of Shanghai. It was desribed as the root of Shanghai. I really admire the effort of the government to maintain these nicely reserved old Shanghai buildings. Not to forget to try their snacks and shopping around to get some real value for money souvenirs. I did not buy anything inside those "high class" shops, as they are expensive. I only buy things at small stalls outside Yuyuan garden, which I was able to get some really value for money stuff!!!! Anyway, must bargain hard for good deal!!!!

Monday, June 28, 2010

We really love the tiramisu at Alexis, it was real good stuff, so far the best we've tried, as far as Malaysia is concerned.This is true especially the caramelized nuts for the topping of the cake, heavenly!!!

However, the recent experience was really a bit disappointed. First of all, we do not like the service at Alexis. This is consider an expensive place to dine at, at least for my standard. They are charging 10% service charge, but I really didn't see the point to pay them the 10%. We ordered sky juice, but it took them ages to bring it, please bear in mind that the occupancy that day was not even 50%!! Moreover, most of their waiters can't speak proper English.

I ordered this Wagyu beef cheek @RM48, which was definitely does not of suit my taste bud. I must admit that the waygu was tender, but I do not like the way they cook the beef, braised with wine and something else...anyway, it taste quite weird, a BIG disappointment for me!!! I didn't enjoy it.

BF ordered this pollo pizza@RM29, top with chicken, cheese and capsicum and etc. I feel that the topping was rather stingy. The Pizza taste okay, but really nothing much to shout about.

I don't think I will go to Alexis for main course again, but Tiramisu, that is for sure!!!

Thursday, June 24, 2010

We only managed to cover approximately 60% of the expo, at least seeing the marvellously constructed pavilions within the expo. Luckily there is this paid transport to "bring" us from European Pavilions site to the other side of the expo, we don't mind paying RMB10 for such a short distance, because the walking was really a lot especially during a burning hot day!

Continue form previous post, some photos I took inside China Pavilion.There is the amazing animation which I like it a lot in the pavilion, which tells the story of history of Chinese

And this was taken during the train ride within China Pavilion, that shows the construction wisdom of Chinese since many century back

Sorry, I've taken lots of photo of the pavilions with our "pretty face", therefore cannot be uploaded, as this blog has to remain its anonymity!!!

Show you guys some of the pavilions..The Israel Pavilion

Indonesia Pavilion

India Pavilion

Qatar Pavilion

Brunei Pavilion

Haha....this was taken in the loos...love their environmental friendly concept that fits the theme of the expo , "Better City, better Life', therefore even toilet paper is environmental friendly!!

And this is Hai Bao,the blue plump cartoon, the mascot of Shanghai Expo 2010.

Last but not least, since this expo site was built from scratch, notice that they even 'plug in' lots of trees and plants to "greenify" the place.

Monday, June 21, 2010

I managed to cover a few "must visit" places during my trip to Shanghai, even though it was really a short trip. One of those is Xin Tian Di. It is a well known tourist spot due to it's famous "new and old" or East and West mixed concept. Shanghai Xin Tian Di is unique because of the antique walls, tiles and exterior of Shikumen housing of old Shanghai. On the new or West side, of course you can see Starbucks and other western dining place in within these 'old' building. When you are at Xin Tian Di, besides admiring the unique building, it's really a nice place for a drink and food, not to mentioned, people watching!

The day view of Xin Tian Di

I dined at Luna@Xin Tian Di, one of the recommended restaurants published in the book "Cool Restaurant Shanghai" by teNeues.

My cup of coffee.

Yummylicious pizza and spaghetti. Don't forget to order cheese cake as well ( Sorry, I didn't snap the photo).The crispy based pizza was real good stuff!!! Mediterranean styled, superb topping and crispy base, I love it!

There is live band at night at Luna as well. The dining experience was great, nice ambiance, great food!Address: Unit 1, Building 15, North Block, Xin Tian DiOpening: 11.30am -1.30am daily

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Me and bf were really thrilled that we finally arrived at the expo. As we've seen so many reports and TV shows about the expo, it was such a great project, and not to mentioned, first time hosts by developing country, it's really an event we would definetely do not want to miss.Thank God, we've got this chance to pay a visit, even though it was a business trip, but we managed to squeeze some time dropping at the expo during our trip to Shanghai last month.

There's so many different entrances to enter to the pavilion. The China government even built a special MRT route to for the expo. In fact, once you've bought the ticket, you can take the free MRT ride to get back to the city and vise versa.We enter the pavilion from Pu Xi entrance, then took a ferry ride to the main site. As for return, we took MRT to Madang road exit.

Our ferry was approaching

We love this nice bridge at Pu Xi site

We managed to see only one pavilion, really the crowd was that much...and thank goodness, it was the most demanding pavilion that we visited- the China Pavilion! In fact, there's limitation of per day entries "pre-booked" ticket. Due to some local connections, we managed to get the privilege, still we need to queue for one hour to enter the Pavilion!There's so many different types of tickets. We purchased one day entry ticket, which cost RMB160. But beware, the food within the expo was super expensive, mainly fast food chains and very much crowded!! Be prepare to walk a lot, a lot, the set up was really massive and in one day, you can't see all, really!!!

We were at the queue, patiently waiting to enter the China Pavilion. That was a super hot day when we were there...what to do, no pain no gain...And, most Chinese do not know what's the meaning of queuing, they love to cut queues, beware!!!

Here it is, the beautiful China Pavilion we have visited!!! Frankly speaking, as a Chinese, I really feel proud of what Chinese has done so far especially for their effort of hosting the expo.

Inside the pavilion, there's escalotor within this mega pavilion!

In China pavilion, there's 3 floors. We were first shown a short movie on China's development, then we proceed to see the olden days time line, and there's a mini train ride within the pavilion, and last but not least the technology part, like China car making technology,,,check out this cute car!

Before I end this post, our Malaysia Pavilion..as per yesterday, the visitor to Malaysian Pavilion was about 600,000, as compared to our neighbour, Thailand hits 800,000, Australia 1,000,000...haha...we are very much lagging behind man!

Monday, June 7, 2010

Huai Hai Lu is a shopping area in downtown Shanghai. When you visit XinTian Di, you may just stroll down to Huai Hai Lu for some shopping as well! We were there for dinner after our visit to Expo. Was totally exhausted, as the day we visited Expo was damn hot day! The queuing up process to visit pavilion was not cool, but yes, we made it, at least managed to see one pavilion - China Pavilion!

Tony is located at the 1st floor, at middle of Huai Hai Lu, near to Madang Road.Never knew this restaurant was actually quite famous, but seeing the crowd and thought of having some spicy food which is not very expensive, we decided to check this restaurant out.

After I done a few "checks" on this place, I found out that Tony is having a few branches in Shanghai, which is serving the Shanghainese style Sichuan food. Comparatively cheaper version, but food was rather okay.

We ordered a Sichuan Stlye steamed fish. A huge fish, topped with really hot and spicy Sichuan sauce - RMB68, super worth! I have no idea what fish was that, but the texture was quite firm, and rather fresh. I am not a fish person, but the fish was quite okay to me, just that I didn't like that there's quite a lot of tiny bones, got to be extra careful when you eat this!

In Malaysia, we love the chili Sichuan chicken at Dragon Eye. Thus, we ordered the similar dish here in China to check out the difference. In fact, the taste was rather close, expect that, here it's a bit more spicy! Good to have it especially with beer. Bf love the local Tsingdao beer in China, which is quite refreshing, he claimed!